SPEAKERS & PRESENTERS

SHALINI AGRAWAL is the Director of the Center for Art + Public Life at the California College of the Arts, where she oversees and facilitates mutually beneficial partnerships and programs with community-based organizations and the college, and believes community engagement is the cornerstone of a creative practice focused on changing the world. Trained as an architect, Shalini has over 20 years of experience facilitating multi-disciplinary design workshops between participants of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic statuses. She is co-founder of the non-profit Architreasures in Chicago, where she designed the community engagement programming, still core to the organization since 1996. Her professional practice, MAC Studio Landscape Architecture, engages communities in design of their landscape. She is adjunct professor in Interior Design, Individualized, First Year and Visual and Critical Studies.

MARY CLAIRE AMABLE is a San Franciscan born, Filipina-American poet. She was raised in a studio apartment in the Tenderloin and currently lives in the South of Market.

Claire's writings reflect the realities of her upbringing living in the second most expensive city in the US. Most of her writing is about being a child of immigrant parents and watching firsthand the struggles and hardships her parents face.​As a woman of color, Claire is constantly battling internalized societal expectations of what it means to be a Filipina. She hopes to one day reclaim the power Filipinas lost to years of colonialism and empower other Filipinas to do the same.

IZZA ANWAR, is a young artist from San Francisco who makes really good chai. Although she focuses on photography and graphic design as her main mediums, she is always looking to learn and experiment with new forms of art. Izza is an opportunity seeker, which has allowed for her work to be published in the most accidental places. Some places include: the DeYoung, SOMArts Cultural Center, and the windows of the Cartoon Art Museum.

Izza’s work can range from discovering different identities to creating images for the sole purpose of looking pretty. Regardless the context of her work, Izza’s best work occurs through collaborations (particularly those with Jason Wyman.)

JONATHAN AXTELL is an artist, small business owner, and community builder. His practice has focused on enabling communities through learning and exchange. Jon was an early launch team member of the Impact Hub community. Through his firm Creature Learning he works builds learning tools for the social sector.

Jon also loves music and is a performance artist and avid music host in Oakland. Under the moniker "Long Hu" Jon has produced dozens of DIY shows and events. His recent personal story spans the Ghost Ship fire and the San Pablo fire. He believes that art plays a fundamental role in the healing of individuals and communities.

Twitter: @JonAxtellInstagram: @JonAxtell

ANYKA BARBER // Born and raised in Oakland, California, Anyka Barber is a mother, an artist/activist, a curator, and an entrepreneur. In 2010, she founded Betti Ono, a creative social enterprise and arts space committed to the cultural, social, political, and economic emancipation and development of low-income, immigrant, and LGBTQ communities of color. In her role as director and curator of Betti Ono, she has produced, designed, and integrated art, enterprise, and social impact strategy to leverage creative capital, cultural products, and networks for good.

In June 2015, Anyka initiated the formation and design of a grassroots arts action and advocacy body, the Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition whose mission is to “#KeepOaklandCreative, affordable and vibrant!” Currently she serves as a Fellow at The San Francisco Foundation, working with the Anchoring Communities/Place team.

​MICAH BAZANT is a trans visual artist who makes work inspired by struggles to decolonize ourselves from white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and the gender binary. They co-founded the national Trans Day of Resilience art project (tdor.co) and the Trans Life and Liberation Art Series (translifeandliberation.tumblr.com), to support and celebrate trans people of color while they are alive. As a white trans artist and organizer, Micah creates art as a practice of love and solidarity with trans justice and racial justice movements. Most of their work is created collaboratively, to generate action, raise funds, and change conditions on the ground for communities of color. Micah recently started working full-time with the organization Forward Together as Artist in Residence. For the last ten years they have also worked closely with Sins Invalid, Movement Generation, and Jewish Voice for Peace. ​

ROBERTO BEDOYA is the newly appointed Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland. Prior to his appointment he was the executive director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC), where he established the innovative P.L.A.C.E (People, Land, Arts, Culture and Engagement) Initiative that supported art-bases civic engagement projects in Tucson, Arizona. Bedoya’s tenure as executive director of the National Association of Artists’ Organizations (NAAO) from 1996 to 2001 included serving as co-plaintiff in the lawsuit Finley vs. NEA. His essays “U.S. Cultural Policy: Its Politics of Participation, Its Creative Potential” , “Creative Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-Belonging” and “The Great Divide and the Pronoun We” have reframed the discussion on cultural policy to shed light on exclusionary practices in cultural policy decision making. As an art consultant, he has worked on projects for Creative Capital Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Urban Institute.

KATHERIN CANTON // Raised between Oakland and San Francisco, Katherin Canton envisions living in a community that values creative and cultural expression for all to participate in. She earned a BFA from California College of the Arts, with an emphasis in Community Arts through a studio practice in photography and textiles. During her time at CCA, she was the administrator and Community Collaborations Director at the volunteer-run arts center Rock Paper Scissors Collective, here she developed funding, business, and partnership processes that resulted in awards from the East Bay Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, and the City of Oakland’s Cultural Arts Program. Katherin organizes with the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture across the West Coast and consults with the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. As the Co-Director of the Emerging Arts Professionals SF/BA she strives to build a visible network for artists, local/small businesses, and government to communicate and share resources.

ANGELA N. CARROLL uses illustration, citizen journalism, documentary film, words, and experimental animation as primary mediums to contribute to and critique the archive. Music and meditation are her medicine. She is an artist-archivist; a purveyor and investigator of culture, contributing contemporary art and film musings to the Baltimore City Paper and BmoreArt magazine. Angela N. Carroll’s newest venture, Merkaba Visions, presents whimsical all-occasion greeting cards featuring affirming and inspiring depictions of #BlackJoy. Follow her on IG @angela_n_carroll or at angelancarroll.com

JEFF CHANG is the Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University. His books include Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, Who We Be: The Colorization of America (published in paperback in January 2016 under the new title, Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post Civil Rights America). His latest, We Gon' Be Alright: Notes On Race and Resegregation, was published in September 2016. His next book will be a biography of Bruce Lee.

Jeff co-founded CultureStr/ke and ColorLines. He was named by The Utne Reader as one of "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" and by KQED as an Asian Pacific American Local Hero. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and the winner of the Asian American Literary Award.

DEBORAH CULLINAN joined Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as CEO in September 2013. With her stewardship, YBCA has sharpened its mission and vision; re-grounding the organization in its origins as a citizen institution and San Francisco’s premiere art center built by the community, for the community. Fostering a “culture of invitation”; Cullinan brings together creative citizens of all kinds to spur social change. Prior to joining YBCA, Deborah served as the Executive Director of San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts for 17 years. Under her leadership, Intersection became a powerful arts-focused community development organization committed to radical partnerships across sectors to achieve equitable community change. She is a co-founder of ArtsForum SF, and a member of the Board of California Arts Advocates, Californians for the Arts, MissionHub, and the Community Arts Stabilization Trust. She is on the Advisory Board of the Catalyst Initiative, Grey Area Foundation for the Arts, Howlround, the San Francisco Arts Education Project, and the Community Visions Project/Americas for the Arts. She is co-chair of the San Francisco Arts Alliance and is a Rockwood Fellow, a Gerbode Fellow and alumni of the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program.

DAVE "DAVEY D" Cook Dave "Davey D" Cook is iconic pioneer in the fields of social media, independent radio and Hip Hop journalism. He is a DJ, an activist, and a commentator with a long history of fostering community awareness and questioning structure of power. As a syndicated radio personality on Hard Knock Radio (KPFA Radio), Cook is renowned for his courageous inquiry concerning key issues facing oppressed peoples within and outside of the United States. He is also a professor in Africana Studies at San Francisco State University where he teaches on African American music and political science. www.daveyd.com

KIM COOK joined Burning Man in 2015 as Director of Art &amp; Civic Engagement managing Playa Arts, Civic Arts, Burners Without Borders, Grants, Community Events, and the Regional Network. With an M.A. in Arts &amp; Consciousness, a B.A. in Performing Arts, and as a Kennedy Center Fellow, Kim has worked in strategic collaboration, cross- sector partnerships, and creative placemaking for over 20 years. From 2013-2015 Kim served as the President of the Arts Council New Orleans where she created “Youth Solutions” a collaborative project to address youth trauma and blight through artist and design education partnerships and launched “LUNA Fete” a festival of art, light, and technology. Prior to her time in New Orleans, from 2008 – 2013, she was an Associate Director for the Nonprofit Finance Fund working with more than 120 nonprofits nationwide to identify and develop financial strategies for sustainability. She was the concept creator for the National Performance/Visual Art Network’s “Leveraging a Network for Equity” project and is well known for her work in Hip Hop art and community. She has produced and directed many original performance works including Shailja Patel’s “Migritude”. In the San Francisco Bay Area Kim previously served as Artistic Director for Theater Artaud and Executive Director for the Oakland Youth Chorus. She is on the Board of Ping Pong Arts in Beijing and served on the 2017 Advisory Board for SXSW’s Art Program. A seven time NEA award winner, Kim develops projects that drive creative interventions in space, interdisciplinary performance, and connected communities.

ASHARA EKUNDAYO is a cultural architect and activist who utilizes social practice to facilitate collaboratory spaces where social permaculture, social entrepreneurship, and social justice can coincide. Through her company AE Creative she consults with companies to assess and build capacity for mindful community engagement through creative arts practice, exhibition, and project management. She is a Certified Permaculture Designer and Certified Foresight Practitioner whose skill at revealing cross-sector unconventional partnerships shift culture to build futures via methodologies and technologies that are competent, kind, and regenerative.

Additionally, Ashara is Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Impact Hub Oakland – a beautiful co-working space and socially engaged community – and also the Director of Omi Gallery, an exhibition venue for building futures. Her commitment to transformation is informed by an intersectional framework that aims to expand the influence and impact of culture on racial equity and environmental justice.

REGINA Y. EVANS is the owner of Regina's Door, an Oakland based social enterprise vintage clothing store which operates as a sanctuary space for survivors of sex trafficking, homeless youth and young artists. Regina's Door was named 2015 Social Changemaker, Oakland Indie Awards, 2016 Nancy's Hero (Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley), and received a 2017 Oakland City Council Commendation in celebration of Small Business Week. Ms. Evans is a member of SHADE (Survivors, Healing, and Dedicated and sits on the Mayor of Oakland's CSEC Task Force. She was honored to be a speaker and delegate at the 2017 United Nations 61st Commission on the Status of Women.

Ms. Evans is an award winning social justice poet, playwright and performer. Her stage play 52 Letters, which brings awareness to the fight against modern day slavery, was honored to win Best of SF Fringe Festival, 2013. She is the Creative Director of CEREMONY a theatrical ritual bringing healing to survivors of sex trafficking. Ms Evans is a board member of both The Flight Deck Performing Arts Space, Oakland, Ca., and The Lower Bottom Playaz Theater, Oakland, Ca.

CHRISTIAN L. FROCK is an independent curator, writer and educator -- her work focuses on art and politics. Invisible Venue, her curatorial enterprise since 2005, collaborates with artists to present art in public spaces. She has organized programs, exhibitions, and commissions with many organizations, including the British Arts Council, Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Southern Exposure, SOMArts Cultural Center, and Emergency USA | Thoreau Center for Sustainability, among others. Her writing has been featured in The Guardian US, KQED Arts, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others; she has written monthly art critic’s picks for San Francisco Arts Monthly since 2009. Recent exhibitions include Take This Hammer: Arts + Media Activism from the Bay Area at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Public Works: Artists’ Interventions 1970s – Now at Mills College Art Museum. Chronicle Books published her first book, titled Unexpected Art, in 2015. She has taught as adjunct faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies and San Francisco Art Institute, and has guest lectured at several schools including San Francisco University, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley. She is presently Visiting Faculty and 2015 – 2017 Scholar in Residence at California College of the Arts’ Center for Art + Public Life, and Spring 2017 Visiting Scholar at San Francisco State University.

WENDY LEVY is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, an organization committed to facilitating innovation, collaboration, strategic growth and cultural impact for the media arts field. Prior to this, Wendy was a Senior Consultant at the Sundance Institute, and Director of New Arts Axis, a new media consultancy working at the intersections of art, culture and human rights. Wendy works with artists, organizations and institutions to deepen relationships and co-create programs and works of art that leverage the power of storytelling, technology and community. Wendy is the recipient of the 2014 Princess Grace Statue Award for distinguished contribution to the media arts field. Wendy speaks regularly at festivals and conferences internationally, on a broad range of topics in social media, documentary, emerging technology, strategic communications and human rights. She has been a featured speaker and panel moderator at the United Nations, Sundance Film Festival, Skoll World Forum, Mozilla Drumbeat, Sheffield Documentary Festival, AIDC, Documentary Edge New Zealand, Making Your Media Matter, Stanford University, SXSW, Latino International Film Festival, and the National Black Programming Consortium's New Media Lab, among many others. An accomplished filmmaker, Wendy's short films have screened at Sundance and at festivals worldwide, won numerous awards, and have been broadcast on PBS and the Sundance Channel.

NDUBUISI MADU has an extensive experience designing brand strategy, business development, and marketing settings. Over time, he has collaborated closely with multi-disciplinary teams, delivering innovative proposals to medium and large businesses across multiple verticals. He is passionate about designing elegant and simple interfaces that address real user needs. He asks the right questions to uncover the best possible solutions. He is currently the Creative Director for the UMOJA African festival and working as a UX/UI Designer in the technology industry.

RUE MAPP is the Founder of Outdoor Afro, a social community reconnecting African Americans with natural spaces through outdoor recreational activities. She oversees a carefully selected and trained national volunteer leadership team of 30 men and women who represent 16 cities around the US.

Through Outdoor Afro, her non-profit organization with offices in Oakland, CA, Rue, as CEO, shares opportunities to build a broader community and leadership in nature. Her important work has generated widespread national recognition and support.

Originally beginning in 2009 as a blog, Rue has since captured the attention and imagination of millions through a multi-media approach, grounded in personal connections and community organizing. From its grassroots beginning, now Outdoor Afro enjoys national sponsorship and is recognized by major organizations for the importance of diversity in the outdoors,

In 2010, Mapp was invited to the White House to participate in the America’s Great Outdoors Conference, and subsequently to take part in a think-tank to inform the launch of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative. She was appointed program officer for the Stewardship Council’s Foundation for Youth Investment to oversee its grant-making program from 2010-2012.

Since that time, Mapp’s work has been featured in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Backpacker Magazine, Ebony Magazine and Sunset Magazine and many others.

GEORGE MCCALMAN // Raised in Brooklyn, Creative Director George McCalman received his BFA in philosophy at St. Johns in Queens, NY, which informs his design principles to this day. He credits his Caribbean background for his unique ability to both embrace and rebel against traditional modes of design, enabling a brand to simultaneously integrate and stand out in its industry. George is an a fine artist, illustrator and graphic designer. His studio serves primarily art, lifestyle, and food clients, MCCALMAN.CO creates a classic, long-lasting brand that continues to define its clients as they evolve.

After 14 years as a leading art director in the magazine industry, George McCalman opened the doors to MCCALMAN.CO in 2011. Working at highly respected national magazines like ReadyMade, Mother Jones, and Entertainment Weekly, McCalman amassed numerous design awards throughout his career; his editorial background gives him a unique perspective on commercial branding. And for MCCALMAN.CO, community is paramount. The foundation and proven success of the studio rests upon his strong relationships with his clients and creative partners. MCCALMAN.CO is a design studio built on the foundation of editorial expertise, bold brand messaging, and personal relationships.

​SIAN MORSON // In 2010, Sian founded Kollective Mobile – a mobile consultancy to help other businesses and startups with mobile development and strategy. Kollective Mobile works primarily with startups and agencies to develop and deliver compelling and delightful mobile experiences.​Kollective Mobile has created mobile apps for high profile clients from Delta to the SEIU. Sian’s diverse skillset includes marketing, mobile strategy, business management and thought leadership. She currently oversees operations and leads business development and strategic efforts.

Sian has been named one of the top women in tech to follow on Twitter by The Huffington Post, Craig Newmark (founder of CraigsList), CEO World Magazine and The Atlanta Blackstar.

Sian is a published author, having written her first book, “Learn Design for iOS” in 2012. In 2014, she contributed to the collection of inspirational essays about women in technology “Innovating Women” by Vivek Wadwha and Ferai Chedaya. ”Design for iOS with Sketch”was published in December of 2015 and quickly became an Amazon best-seller reaching the top ten in the Computers & Technology category.

Sian is the founder of Cast Beauty, a data-driven beauty app that provided users personalized product recommendations based on their skin and hair profile and data points from the weather. Cast Beauty was featured in publications worldwide including Blavity, Ebony, PopSugar, MarieClaire, and others.Cast was recognized by L’Oreal as Next Generation Award winners for having the potential to disrupt and transform the beauty industry. In 2016, Sian sold Cast Beauty and transitioned from founder to investor

HOLLEY MURCHISON is an entrepreneur, education producer and strategist based in Oakland, CA. She uses her passions for communication and culture to help emerging creatives, entrepreneurs, and leaders tell stories, pitch solutions and execute ideas that move the world forward. As Founder & CEO of Oratory Glory, a communication agency and speaker collective catalyzing diversity by amplifying marginalized voices, she leads the development of learning experiences and strategy for companies, entrepreneurial communities, and schools around the world.

LISA NIEDERMEYER is a maker, prospector, connector and reframing of realities. As a maker she is a portrait artist working in 3D interactive sculpture. This work is informed by her background as a professional dancer and interest in using technology to discover meaning and magic. As prospector and connector she is Director of Client Development for Fractured Atlas where she connects with artists, talks real talk when it comes to money, and is an ally as they seek resources in service of ambitious creative vision. As a reframer of realities she is a mentoring coach at NEW INC, the world&#39;s first museum-led incubator, as well as for the National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellows program. She grew up wild dancing on the edge of the Snake River Canyon in Southern Idaho with geek brothers and a mother who could make anything out of fabric, glass, wood, and song

MIKE NICHOLLS is a creative director, brand strategist, visual designer, and illustrator; who holds a B.A. in Visual Communication. He translates ideas into visionary creative solutions utilizing 20 years of design experience and natural talent. He is currently the Director of Global Creative Solutions at research and advisory firm based in Silicon Valley and founder of Umber Magazine.

ERI OURA // Hailing from the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Eri Oura is a magical sea turtle learning to flow with the currents of the local Bay Area communities. As a daughter of 1st and 2nd generation Japanese immigrants in Hawaiʻi, Eri’s passion for justice is deeply rooted in aloha ʻāina (love for the land). Eri is a resident and collective member at Oakland SOL, teaches bicycle safety and is a staff collective member at Cycles of Change, and is one of the organizers of the #Liberate23rdAve campaign.

MYAH OVERSTREETwas born and raised in Oakland, California, and studies Journalism and English Literature at San Francisco State University. She has always had a passion for creative arts and the written word. Overstreet worked on school productions at Berkeley High School’s Drama Department, produced short films, and wrote articles published in The Jacket, an independent publication of Berkeley High School students.​​Her love for working with nonprofit media arts organizations began during her time as Production Assistant intern at TILT, a project of Ninth Street Independent Film Center in San Francisco, with Jason Wyman. Wyman later introduced Overstreet to The Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, where she accepted the position as Producer of Youth Engagement and Blog Editor for The Alliance’s Youth Media program.

DEVI PEACOCK is an activist-comedian and storyteller and the founding Artistic and Executive Director of Peacock Rebellion, a queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) crew of artists, cultural workers, healers and community organizers who use the arts to build collective liberation culture. Devi is an organizer with the #Liberate23rdAve campaign to preserve the last QTPOC block in Oakland and serves on the steering committee of Liberating Ourselves Locally, a QTPOC -centered MakerSpace for social justice. Devi served as the first Director of Community Engagement of the Queer Cultural Center, home of the National Queer Arts Festival; as a Rockwood Fellow, a VONA Voices Fellow, and a Cultural Equity Fellow with Emerging Arts Profesionals; and on selection panels for the San Francisco Arts Commission, the United States of Asian America Festival and the National Performance Network.

FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ is an transdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and organizer based in Oakland, California. Her work and collaborative initiatives address migration, economic inequality, gender justice, and ecology. Favianna lectures globally on intersection of art, social justice and cultural equity to catalyze social change, and leads art interventions in communities around the country. Rodriguez collaborates deeply with social movement groups around the country to co-create art that’s resilient, empowering and transformative. She is the Executive Director ofCultureStrike, a national arts organization that engages artists, writers and performers in migrant rights. In 2012, she was featured in a documentary series by Pharrell Williams titled “Migration is Beautiful” which addressed how artists responded to failed immigrant policy in the United States. In 2016, she received a prestigious Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship.

LAUREN OLIVIA RUFFIN is Fractured Atlas’s Vice President for External Relations (VPER), responsible for the organization’s marketing, communications, community engagement, and fundraising. Prior to joining the team at Fractured Atlas, Lauren served as Director of Development for DC-based organizations Martha’s Table and the National Center for Children and Families. She was also fortunate to serve in various roles at and various positions at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Children’s Defense Fund, New Leaders, and AAUW. Before entering the nonprofit sector, Lauren held the position of Assistant Director of Government Affairs for Gray Global Advisors, a bipartisan government relations firm. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Political Science and obtained a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law. She lives in Washington, DC with her wife, two kiddos, and two pups. In her spare time, she can be found mountain biking or gesturing wildly at the teevee in support of Duke University’s men’s basketball team.

ZOE SAMDUZI is a writer, a part of the Oakland-based Black Aesthetic, a member of the 2017/18 Public Imagination cohort of the YBCA Fellows Program, and a doctoral student in Medical Sociology at the University of California, San Francisco. Her work, grounded in legacies and scholarship of black [African] feminism, endeavors to democratize knowledge production and explore new modes of truth-telling.

DOROTHY R. SANTOS is a Filipina-American writer, editor, curator, and educator whose research interests include new media and digital art, activism, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. Born and raised in San Francisco, California, she holds Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of San Francisco, and received her Master’s degree in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts. In the fall of 2017, she will be a doctoral candidate in Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Eugene V. Cota-Robles fellow.

Her work appears in art21, Art Practical, Daily Serving, Rhizome, Hyperallergic, Real Life Magazine, Vice Motherboard, and SF MOMA's Open Space. She has lectured at the De Young museum, Stanford University, School of Visual Arts, and more. Her essay “Materiality to Machines: Manufacturing the Organic and Hypotheses for Future Imaginings,” was published in The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture. She is currently a Yerba Buena Center for the Arts fellow researching the concept of citizenship.

NAIMA SHALHOUB is a Lebanese-American artist who uses music as a tool for transformation, liberation, education, and self-expression. Her multi-dimensional work as a vocalist, composer, performing artist, and educator focuses on the expansive quality of the voice and its power for redemption and social justice.

After receiving her MA in Postcolonial and Cultural Anthropology in 2008, she turned her focus to creation and performance in the Bay Area. She immediately found herself equally at home with her band, on the stages of San Francisco music venues and in the spotlight as a presenting speaker at TEDx in Beirut. Her music brings vibrant personality, poetic eloquence, and impassioned performances to both nationally acclaimed venues and community event spaces. She also appears in theater productions, joins fundraisers, and speaks at conferences across the United States. www.naimashaloub.com

KAMAL SINCLAIR is a producer, theatrical director, community arts leader and multi-disciplinary artist. She serves as the Director of the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Labs Program, which supports artists working at the convergence of film, art, media and technology; as a Consultant to the Ford Foundation's JustFilms program; and as artist and producer on the Question Bridge: Black Males transmedia art project. At New Frontier, she partners with Chief Curator Shari Frilot to development and platform landmark projects in the evolution of story, including experimentations with virtual reality, augmented reality, data intelligence, interactive cinema and machine learning. She facilitates partnerships, and interfaces, with leaders in the field, such as MIT, National Film Board of Canada, ILMxLab, Madison Wells Media, New York Times, Annapurna/With.In, Google, Samsung, USC, and more. Question Bridge launched a successful interactive website and robust education curriculum, published an acclaimed book under Aperture, and exhibited in over fifty museums and Festivals, including Brooklyn Museum, Sundance Film Festival, Jack Shainman Gallery, Oakland Museum of California and LA Film Festival. It received accolades from a broad range of critics and institutions and won awards such as the International Center for Photography’s 2015 Infinity Award for New Media. In 2016 the project was archived at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Previously, Kamal worked in leadership positions at 42 Entertainment, Strategic Arts Consulting, and in an earlier life performed in STOMP.

JEWELS SMITH is the creator and writer of (H)afrocentric. She won the Glyph Award for Best Writer on (H)afrocentric Volume 4, and was honored by the African American Library and Museum of Oakland with the first annual Excellence in Comics and Graphic Novels Award. Smith has given talks about the relationship between comics, humor, racial justice, and gender equity at The Schomburg Center, New York Comic Con, Studio Museum of Harlem, Baltimore Book Festival, and The Cooper Union. www.hafrocentric.com

DAVINA STEWART is a cultural worker who holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Media from Columbia College Chicago, a BA in African American Studies from Temple University, and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Community Development and Urban Studies from Indiana University. She is a recipient of the prestigious Leeway Foundation Transformation Award that recognizes women and trans artists who create art for social change.

Davina had been writing, directing, and producing her solo and ensemble works for the stage for over fifteen years. As a workshop facilitator, Davina seeks to cultivate safe spaces for participants to candidly grapple with challenging issues. She strives to work within a human rights and social justice paradigm that acknowledges the inherent worth and creativity of all people - until someone inevitably proves her wrong. www.dahvuhnay.com

AMARA TABOR-SMITH describes her work as Afro Futurist Conjure Art. Her dance making utilizes Yoruba spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, race, gender identity and belonging. She is the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater, and co founded Headmistress-- an international collaboration with movement artist Sherwood Chen. Amara is the former associate artistic director and dancer with Urban Bush Women, and has performed in the works of dance and theater artists such as Ed Mock, Joanna Haigood, Ronald K. Brown, Faustin Linyekula, Ana Deveare Smith, and Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Residencies and awards include, The Headlands Center for the Arts, CHIME Mentorship Exchange, CounterPULSE Theater, and ODC Theater artist in residence. She is a co recipient of the 2016 Creative Capital grant with Ellen Sebastian Chang, and was recently awarded a residency fellowship at Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil.Amara currently teaches dance at Stanford University and is a continuing lecturer in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.

LEA TUPILI ARELLANO is a Mexican/Indigenous Two Spirit Urban Medicine Healer for Queer People of Color, our families, friends and communities. An artivist from birth, Lea is an Elder, Sacred Scholar, Curx, 30+yrs Oakland Resident. Traditional and wild creative/non-traditional medicine practices and ceremonies available through their practice at www.TwoSpiritMedicine.Gifts

ANGELA M. WELLMAN Trombonist, scholar, educator and activist Angela Wellman has performed with the McCoy Tyner Big Band, Joe Williams, Al Grey, Slide Hampton, and other noted musicians. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Ms. Wellman was nurtured in a musical family, and is a third generation musician and music educator. Ms. Wellman is a recipient of national, state, and city Arts awards and fellowships for performance study and music education. Among these awards is the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowship to study with trombonist Steve Turre. In 2005 she founded the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music (OPC) to provide quality, affordable music education for underserved and under-resourced populations. Since opening its doors in 2005, OPC has become one of the Bay Area’s vanguard institutions in community music education and cultural preservation through music. In 2016 Angela received the Cultural Key to the City from Mayor of Oakland. Ms. Wellman is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research is centered on the impact of desegregation on access to music education for African American students.

​MARVIN K. WHITEMDiv, is a graduate of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley CA, and a former Pastor Associate at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. He is currently an arts liaison and a co-facilitator of the "Faith Leaders Round Table" at The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. He is the author of four collections of poetry published by RedBone Press; Our Name Be Witness, Status and the two Lammy-nominated collections last rights and nothin’ ugly fly. As a public theologian and community-based artist, he is articulating a vision of social, prophetic and creative justice through being a poet, artist, teacher, facilitator, activist, community organizer, preacher, homemaker, cake baker, and Facebook Statustician.

JASON WYMAN is many things. They are an artist using all the tools available -- photography, video, interviews, social media, sound, design -- to create visual works that reveal layers / connections / perspectives. He is a writer examining truths / myths through fables / poetry / parallel observations. She is a performer crafting multi-media experiences that dance between light / dark, despair / hope, reality / possibility. He is a curator filling white walls / empty spaces with the voices / visions of community / emerging / established artists. She is an educator cultivating environments of peer exchange rooted in creative inquiry / multisensory pedagogies. They are a catholic mystic conjuring ephemeral landscapes of astral / temporal origins. Wyman is queerly complex. ​www.jasonwyman.com | Instagram